Libor rigging: 'You'll be looked after in Vegas. I promise you.'

Newly disclosed transcripts in a probe into suspected manipulation of the global financial benchmark known as Libor depict brokers and bankers allegedly discussing secret payments as they plotted.

The transcripts were released Thursday as regulators in the USA and Great Britain imposed $2.3 million in fines against interdealer broker RP Martin Holdings for taking more than $400,000 in bribes to rig Libor, the benchmark used to set rates on trillions of dollars in mortgages and loans worldwide.

“It’s killing me mate i am losing so much cash then i can’t pay you,” a senior Japanese yen trader for Swiss banking giant UBS allegedly told an RP Martin broker in a July 18, 2008, electronic exchange included in the transcripts. The trader sought to help to lower the one-month rate for yen.

“Thats is not gonna help anyone,” responded the broker, who said a colleague was trying to “pull a favour” with a counterpart at another institution.

“Roite yu owe him a beer wednesday,” the broker said after the alleged rate-changing deal was arranged. “Fosters top he likes extra chilled.”

“Ok mate ta for that dude,” the senior trader responded.

Libor is the shorthand for the London Interbank Offered Rate. It is supposed to represent the rates at which the London offices of major banks would provide loans to one another in a variety of world currencies for varying lengths of time.

Investigators in the USA, Great Britain, Canada, Singapore and elsewhere say evidence such as the transcripts shows bank traders conspired to push Libor rates up or down to boost their own profits.

Brokers for London-based RP Martin allegedly conspired with the UBS trader to manipulate Libor rates for yen from September 2008 through August 2009, according to the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission and Britain’s Financial Conduct Authority, the regulators that announced the latest penalties in the expanding investigation.

“The culture at Martin was that profit came first,” said Tracey McDermott, the FCA’s director of enforcement and financial crime.

RP Martin said its new senior management team cooperated fully with the investigation and “entirely respects the fine and sanctions imposed.” The firm said it had overhauled its governance and compliance protocols over the past 12 months.

FCA investigators separately filed criminal charges in July against former RP Martin Holdings brokers Jerry John Farr and James Andrew Gilmour, both of Essex. The allegations included two counts of conspiracy to defraud.

London-based Barclays, Royal Bank of Scotland, UBS Netherlands-based Rabobank and ICAP, the world’s largest inter-dealer broker, collectively have been fined roughly $6 billion by U.S., British and other regulators for Libor manipulation.

Along with conspiring with the UBS trader, RP Martin was accused of involvement with so-called wash trades — unnecessary transactions its brokers arranged solely to hide the alleged bribe payments.

“All right, listen. I need you, mate,” an RP Martin broker said to a Royal Bank of Scotland yen trader in a Sept. 19, 2008, exchange that allegedly focused on arranging such a trade.

“I need your money. I — oh, you’ll be looked after in Vegas. I promise you. It’s only a month away,” the broker said, according to the investigation transcripts.

“Yeah, but I can’t do that size,” the trader replied, referring to the financial terms involved.

“I’ll be grateful for anything, mate,” the broker said.

“Oh, mate you’re a superstar. cheers, dude, ta,” the broker said when the two reached an agreement.